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xviii. friend zone

"LET'S TALK ABOUT LGPE," Dr. Terry announced over the simmering chatter that came from her students.

It was a grueling Thursday afternoon, the first day of February in fact, meaning that the Meadowbrook High School Advanced Mixed Choir will have a month and a half to prepare for the big day. To any other person, it may have been a lot of time to work on their two pieces of music. But frankly, it wasn't like that at all. The choir had the music down just fine — however, there were other elements they'll need to focus on, some that aren't even about singing.

There was a long list, according to Dr. Terry. One of those elements was stage deportment, which consisted of attire, entrances and exits, setting up, etc. The rubric the judges will use will determine if the choir was noisy or orderly when they entered the stage, or if their choir dresses and suits were worn properly with all black shoes or not. This would take a big toll out of their judgment. Definitely not more than the singing itself, but this was definitely the fundamentals — the base of their judgment — which will determine either a superior or unsatisfactory score.

"I know it's still early, but as the festival approaches closer, we will begin to talk about stage deportment more, especially in between songs," Dr. Terry announced. She then began to explain basic information about where the performance will take place and such. According to her, it will be on the second Saturday of March at Crews High School. Technically, it was one of the biggest high schools in the school district, so there will be plenty of room for all thirty high schools in the district to perform.

Even though it had plenty of room, all of the high schools will not perform in one day. The high schools will perform in the time period from Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Normally, performances that take place on school days will be during school hours — which means that choir students would get to skip out on classes. Being in Meadowbrook's choir, having their performance on the weekend wasn't too bad. Dr. Terry announced that the students would need to report to Meadowbrook by two o'clock in the afternoon so they could take a school bus to Crews. Overall, they'd spend a few hours there, so it would be like a field trip outside of school.

"There's so much more information to know about LGPE, but we'll discuss that at a later date," Dr. Terry declared as the electronic school bells rang from above. "Class is dismissed, good job today."

Soon enough, chatter began to stir amongst the choir students as they gathered their belongings so they could leave. Not Inez, however. Her friend, Jolien, left school early due to a dentist's appointment, so she left class all on her own. Alexander trailed behind the girl from a distance as everyone piled out of the classroom's swinging doors. As he pulled out his car keys, he couldn't help but notice a stain on Inez's blue jeans as soon as she began to look up. The stain was bright red, and sort of big, for that matter. Alexander felt his mouth drop as he instantly rushed toward the girl. "Inez, uhh . . ."

"What's wrong, Alexander?" The girl questioned with a raised eyebrow. She must've had no clue what was going on.

"You may want to check yourself," the boy grimaced as he began to take off his light, fake leather jacket. "There's a . . . blood stain on your pants."

Inez's eyes widened as if she had just seen a ghost. "What? I didn't think that it would start 'till tomorrow."

Inez Archer has always had a weird cycle. She's never really had that big of a public accident, but this, by far, had to be the most embarrassing one she'd ever experience. Especially in front

Alexander held out his jacket. "Here, take my jacket and wrap it around your waist. You can return it to me whenever you want."

"Are you sure? It's pretty cold outside," the girl mused while trying to muster a smile out of her hopeless situation.